Son of the Shield - Status Report

Wednesday I spent an approximate total of six hours editing/rewriting sword fight and ambush scenes. During those six hours I had the Minas Tirith theme from the LOTR soundtrack on repeat (Click Here to listen) since it makes such great ambush music, but I'm pretty sure it's permanently engraved on my brain now. I've even dreamed it the last few nights.
Son of the Shield has some awesome revamped ambushes in it, though! (If I may say so without sounding boastful ; )
Special thanks go to my brother James, too, for all his help and insight on how the mind of a man works. I'm sure by now he's very tired of me saying "Okay, James, so if you were in this situation and so-and-so did such-and-such..." but he's been very patient and helpful, so hopefully my male readers of the future won't be disgusted with me. : )
The project as a whole is moving along well, and I'm very hopeful about making my deadline. 
A fellow Christian writer, Brian McBride, also gave me a great idea with some graphics he did for his own WIP (you can check them out Here, at his blog) and I'm starting to think about doing something kind of similar.
First things first, though - and finishing Son of the Shield is definitely first!

I'm not dead!

My apologies for the recent absence of posts. It's been a while since I've had access to the internet. So, here's a brief update of what's going on in my life:
Turkey season. So far my dad and sister have each bagged a turkey. It was my sister's first time hunting with us, and she did a great job! Our refrigerator is already nicely crowded with fresh meat, and I'm looking forward to my hunt coming up tomorrow morning (though not looking forward so much to getting up at 4:30 AM).
Homeschooling Convention. Most of this past week has been totally wrapped around getting ready for and working at the local homeschooling convention. It went pretty well, I think, and I was able to attend several really good seminars - I even got to meet Dr. Jason Lisle in person! (For those of you who don't know, Dr. Lisle is an astrophysicist who was with Answers in Genesis for several years and is now with the Institute for Creation Research, and I've been reading his work for years.)

I was also able to meet and talk to a fellow Christian writer who has just published his first novel, which I'll be reviewing over at The Flying Librarian's Hideout in a few days, so be sure to keep an eye out for Night of the Cossack.
More along the fantasy line of things, this weekend I became acquainted with a very cool business called SturdiGuns, owned and operated by a Christian, home schooling family. I liked what I saw so much that I even brought home a piece of their merchandise:

SturdiGuns creates realistic wooden silhouettes of various types of weapons. Most of their products are guns, but they offer a few different styles of swords and battle axes as well - all at amazingly low prices! Click Here to check out their website and see for yourself. Be keeping an eye out here, too, for the sword I bought to make another appearance. I have some very cool ideas in store for it... which brings me to next order of business in this update:
Son of the Shield. We're getting close, my friends! There are still a few little gaps that need to be filled in, some scenes that need to be streamlined, and one plot point that needs to be fleshed out a little more, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and it's getting closer. Finally! I'm very excited to be almost finished with the final draft so I can move on to the next step in my writing journey, which hopefully will include publishing and starting work on the sequel. Yes, there is a sequel to Son of the Shield, and I'm started to get very excited about the prospect of starting work on it. But in the meantime, I have some cool plans and ideas coming up for getting the word out about SOTS and ensuring that it receives a warm welcome into the literary world when (Lord willing) it arrives.
So, in closing, thanks for reading this update and, as always, be sure to stick around for whatever adventure is next!

Arming Your Hero - Part 2

Every great hero of fantasy fiction needs to be well armed, right? And, if you're writing fantasy fiction, the most popular weapon of choice is a sword.
But of course, 'sword' is a very broad and rather vague word, and every great character needs a weapon that compliments their own personality and style. (Would Aragorn be half so Aragorn-ish if he carried a rapier rather than Narsil? What would Peter Pevensie be without the sword given to him by Father Christmas?)
There are many different kinds of swords out there, though. So with that in mind, I've put together a list--a showcase, if you will--of the basic styles of swords, to help you fantasy writers out there figure out just exactly what it is your hero (or any other armed character) is carrying. Enjoy!

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This is a broadsword--your most basic, straightforward sword design. It can come in variations of one-hand, hand-and-a-half, and two-hand design, and the hilt and crosstree can be as simple or as elaborate as you like, so there is a lot of flexibility to work with here.

This is a scimitar. It was the weapon-of-choice for the Turks during the crusades, and probably due to that fact, it often brings to mind images of sheiks and desert nomads (or the Calormen army running around and harassing Narnia).

Here is a rapier. The picture probably has you thinking of The Three Musketeers or A Tale of Two Cities, and rightfully so. The rapier was used historically in private duels, but played its role in warfare as well. It also made a classic appearance in fantasy fiction in The Princess Bride.

These are butterfly swords--one of my favorite weapons. I love them for their totally distinctive look, but one of the coolest facts about them is that they belong in sets of two; the inside of the grips are flat so that the swords 'nest' together in a single scabbard (talk about a recipe for trailer moments!).

This is a cutlass, a favorite of eighteenth-century pirates and Civil War cavalrymen alike. But I think the cutlass has a lot to offer in a fantasy setting as well. It has a sort of 'gritty' look to it, I think, but you could also dress it up and stylize it--give it more of a saber look--for use in more formal settings.
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I hope y'all enjoyed this post, but even more so, I hope it will be helpful to you as you're building and developing your fantasy worlds and the armies and fighters who inhabit them. There's more to come; in Arming Your Hero Part 2 I'll be showcasing smaller knives used in hand-to-hand combat.
In the meantime: What's your favorite type of sword? What kind do the characters in your fantasy stories use?